Book Review: Pershing, Commander of the Great War {BookSneeze}

Pershing: Commander of the Great War by John Perry
Format: Kindle book (hardcover here)
ASIN: B005ENBC1E
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Retail: $19.99
Description (from BookSneeze):

No other American military leader is so important and yet so little known as John J. Pershing.

He led an army of more than a million men in France, defeating the seemingly invincible German war machine with only six months of offensive action. He was an American hero, and yet, today, General Pershing has faded away to the second or third tier of America’s historical memory. His accomplishments rightly place him in the company of great generals such as MacArthur, Eisenhower, and Patton, all of whom he commanded and inspired, and all of whom he outranked. He shaped world events in Europe as surely as Woodrow Wilson or David Lloyd George, so why has America forgotten him?

John Perry chronicles the life of a strong, inflexible leader who was an insufferable nit-picker on the job, but a faithful friend, tender husband, and devoted father. To the small group fortunate enough to know him, Pershing was a great and wonderful man. To the rest, he was stiff, cold, impersonal, and best avoided. Remembered as a stern taskmaster, he was driven not by devotion to discipline but devotion to duty. Not only was there honor and order in his methods, there was victory. And that is the lesson this teacher leaves with us.

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My thoughts:

I have enjoyed learning more about Pershing. There is much more in this book about Pershing than is generally taught from a educational standpoint. Many people think of Pershing as a task-master, cold and strict. This book shows the side of him that most people don’t know.

With that said, it was a difficult book to finish. It is long and drawn out; it is dry; it is not well organized in places. The writing is not the best I’ve read and takes away from what could be a great book.

What I did particularly enjoy was the history of Pershing. He was a man of his environment. He began with the desire to teach, not to be in the army. But circumstances and choices put him in places with people that would affect him, and he would have a profound effect on history. The book also includes brief histories of many men (and women) that were important around the same time as Pershing.

Overall, I rate it 3.75; good subject, good overall organization; poor writing and some instances of disorganization.

**Disclaimer: I received this ebook from BookSneeze in exchange for an honest review. I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own. See Disclosure/Policies.**